Complete the yellow feedback forms available throughout Whanganui Hospital

How do I make a complaint?

Many complaints or concerns can be resolved quickly once they are brought to our attention. If you have a concern about our service we encourage you to talk to the staff member in charge of the department, or the WDHB Customer Relations Officer. To help families and Māori whānau to make a complaint or to meet and talk about their concerns, Te Hau Ranga Ora (Māori Health Services) is available and can be contacted via the telephonist.

Key details to include in a complaint

To enable the Whanganui District Health Board to fully investigate your complaint, please include the following key details:

contact details of the complainant including name, address and phone number

contact details of the patient (if patient is not the complainant) including name, address, phone number and date of birth

if you are not the patient, please state your relationship to the patient.

If the complaint is made by someone other than the patient, the Customer Relations Officer may need to contact the patient to seek their consent to the disclosure of their health information.

What to expect when you make a complaint

If you make a complaint, the person receiving your complaint will record all the relevant details with your complaint being logged in our electronic complaint management system, Riskman. We will send you a formal acknowledgement of your complaint within five working days.

Your complaint will be sent to a senior manager or clinician for investigation.

If your complaint has not been resolved ten working days after the acknowledgement of your complaint, you will receive an update as to the progress of the investigation and we will continue to update you every ten working days thereafter, until the complaint is resolved.

Once the investigation has been completed, the investigator may contact you to discuss the findings. You may prefer to meet in person to do this and this option is available to you. You can also request to meet with the staff involved in your complaint and this can usually be arranged.

Te Hau Ranga Ora staff, who work with patients and their whānau, are available to help to arrange meetings between whānau and staff and provide Māori cultural services.

Following completion of the investigation process you will receive a formal, written response from the WDHB chief executive. The chief executive signs off all formal complaint responses.

As an organisation, we have a target to resolve as many complaints as possible within 20 working days.

Advocacy Service

If you are unhappy about the service you have received from a health or disability provider you can seek free independent support from Nationwide Health & Disability Advocacy Service.